Ragnok ran his hand over his bald head as he tried to keep down the headache he felt was no doubt forming. For almost the past week his hunting parties had been reporting food being stolen from traps all over the territory and they had yet to catch the culprit.

Oddly enough they caught no scents of stray beasts that had entered their territory. Even signs that they were under attack by another tribe would be better than just running around blind.

He sighed as he stood from his seat at the head of the council, which prompted all of the others seated at the table to look at him warily. Seeing Gagnok the great, chief of the north forest angry was not something you would want on your to-do list.

"Enough," Ragnok said with a low growl. "I want this matter of stolen food dealt with. Today. Send out goblins that have the gift of Hermes or any other gift of speed. Tell them to scour the whole territory until they find the intruder."

"How many goblins should we send out exactly," one of his advisors asked with hesitation.

"All of them," Ragnok said as he walked out of the room of council and into his private training room. Everyone knew that the chief was close to manifesting a will so no one dared to disturb him further.

The advisors quickly got back to work as they carried out the chief's orders. Half of them went out with their hunting parties as the other half organized the goblins with gifts of speed to go and hunt for the intruder.

In an impressive sight, half a dozen goblin's glowed various shades of green as they spilt up throughout the territory to search of the food thief.

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A small green reached out towards the corpse of the dead horned rabbit as the small figure tried to hull the body out of the trap that it was ensnared in.

With a growl of frustration, the goblin gave up trying to drag the body and instead sunk his already sharp fangs into the leg of the rabbit. He gnawed and pulled at the leg until it finally came off and he was thrown onto his back.

He hungrily tore into the bloody meat as he felt energy start to fill his body once more. Hunting was impossible especially when any odd monster could kill him with just a tap, so he had to resort to slowly lurking through the territory looking for monsters that had been caught in traps.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He had also gotten the sent of something that seemed oddly familiar, almost identical to his own

His instincts had told him to follow it, to go towards the scent, almost as if it was calling him. But he held himself back.

The last and only meeting he had had with a monster had been a little less than pleasant. He had been lurking through the forest looking for traps, like the one he was at now, to find food. It had been a horned rabbit much like the one he was eating. The rabbit had wandered near the bush he had been hiding in and when its red eyes had passed over him, he felt his blood go cold. He stayed still, not even daring to breathe until the rabbit moved to another area to look for food. He had stayed in the bush for another 10 minutes before leaving, still scared the rabbit was close by.

While the little goblin was lost in his thoughts the wind suddenly shifted a little around him filling his nose with the scents he was just thinking of. Before he could even react he saw a flash of green before darkness consumed him and he fell unconscious.

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Ragnok stared at the scout that had discovered the intruder prompting him to speak with a small nod of his head.

The scout hesitated for a second before he reported what he had found, “It was a goblin chief.”

Ragnok looked at him in confusion, if it was an intruder goblin why not just kill them and be done with it.

“Well the goblin, it's a child chief,” the scout reported.

Ragnok still didn’t understand, a child it may be but adventuring and stealing food from another tribe’s territory would still warrant death. Child or not. He furrowed his brows and motioned the scout to continue, there had to be more to report.

“Well the child, he’s one of ours. Has the north forest scent imprinted on him”

“Are you sure?”

“I would never mistake our scent chief,” the scout defended himself.

“Where is the child now?”

“In the nursery chief, I felt him to the elders to take care of”

Ragnok thought for a moment before he asked “Who was assigned to dispose of the giftless?”

“It was Gurk’s shift chief”

“Call him. I want him now.” Then after a second thought, he added, “Also call Freya, tell her it’s important.” There had been only one goblin pregnant recently so it was obvious whose child this was.